http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7846815.stm

Most of you probably heard of this tragedy today.
I really can't understand how anybody is capable of doing that, killing innocent children who couldn't even defend themselves.
I pass by Dendermonde almost everyweek by train and it makes me living as in a dream at the moment.
Damn, how is something like that still possible in our modern western world!?

The thought only that you put your child into the daycare at morning and you find out that you have no child anymore that exact same day is something that can never be described with words.

My deepest condoleance to the victims and their family.

Cheers

Frazzle

this is shocking indeed.

Sad part is this happens everyday in Gaza. Innocent children got killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendermonde_nursery_attack

It's a horrible tragedy.
My condoleances to the victims, friends and families.

I am very happy that he did not continue his rampage, and at least he got caught. Things could've been even far more worse.

Shocking to hear that the guy's only 20.

But I am not surprised of how this could have happened. Public buildings are not high secured facilities with 7 feet tall bodybuilders guarding every room. Everyone can walk in and out, wanted or not. What could the nurses have possibly done to stop him? He walked straight on. I'm not sure if they pursued him after he told that he "required some information", they were probably somewhat overwhelmed by his entrance, but it wouldn't have mattered at all.

The bigger our society, the more ill-minded people we get.

Quadraxas, killings in Gaza is horrible as well of course, but there's a whole different reasoning behind it. I don't think you should make that comparison.

Yeah, you're right. It's easy to get lost in the crowd. Of course, it's another thing for a person to snap and cause this kind of horror. No sane person would ever consider doing such a thing and I'm sure the guy had huge issues.

It's a sad sad thing, but to be honest I don't think there's really a way to prevent such things, except maybe give the guy the care he needs. But it's unlikely people really have noticed in such a way that they would be alarmed enough to take action.

I think the killings in Gaza are totally comparable when it comes to how pointless and horrific both are, "war" zone or not.

Cheers

I also think it is comparable. Did you hear or read about the numbers? The war forces from Israel only left 13 people but killed 1300, 100 times more. This was pure slaughtering, just like this ill man did.

Do the numbers make it comparable? I think both are bad, and personal loss nor mass murder can be expressed in "units of horror". That's pretty pointless.

I don't meant to drag this to a whole discussion, I just find it strange to emphasize how some totally unrelated subject is the same horror as what happened in Belgium, but 400 times more.

I disagree. It is just the awareness of the media. In fact, it is the opposite, our European countries are strong and healthy as the've never been before.

If you compare it for instance to Africa, a continent of societies that never got a real chance to recover from the exploitation and fragmentation by the Europeans there are ill-minded people who _rule_ the countries, instead of causing a single tragedy, they installed a serial of never ending tragedies. The mentioned war in Gaza is only mentioned, because it is in the media - in Sudan, in Zimbabwe... etc. you can't count the countries where this everyday shit happens.

Don't get me wrong, I was shocked by that what in Belgium happened, but it is, because it is so close to my all day experiences, it is because I imagine it within the kindergarten of my son etc.

I think, our feelings are with the families in Belgium, because it is - although for the families it is unbearable - to _us_ it is actually easier to bear this tragedy than the overwhelming tragedies in other places of the world. That is okay, because no one can bear that. Important is at least, that we don't forget the others.

Happends everytime in Gaza. I wish i could do something about it.

You've definitely made a good point there. The media does often make violence and drama the focus of their news, but I still think violence has increased (slightly) , proportional to the size of society. It only makes sense, more people need to divide the pie. So, while crime rates in the bigger picture may be going down, acts of violence aren't disappearing just yet.



It's perhaps geographically closer, but there are kindergartens in Gaza just the same. I don't see why this makes it any different.



I'm sure Frank meant to say exactly that, numbers do not matter. When I think of it, do numbers matter?? No, I totally don't think so. You know, it's dangerous thinking. It's like saying one of those earthquakes in Turkey a few years ago wasn't that bad, because they only had like 400 deaths or so, which compared to tsunami victims in Indonesia is a lot less, so it can't possibly be equally horrific. (Pictures showed both places even looked very much like a war zone.)

Really, numbers do not matter at all when lives are concerned.
It's slaughter either way.

Cheers

It is strange but fitting here. My statistic professor told us:
a dead person is a very sad event, 50 dead persons are a tragedy but 1,000 deaths are just statistics.

Maybe it has to do with our limited imagination.